Report faults Georgia, other states on fighting disease

ATLANTA — Half the states — including Georgia — scored a 5 or lower on 10 key indicators for preventing, detecting and responding to disease outbreaks, according to a new report.

The response to Ebola was a central theme in the report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Ebola crisis in the United States this year showed that “some of the most basic infectious disease controls failed when tested,” Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, said in a statement.

“The Ebola outbreak is a reminder that we cannot afford to let our guard down,’’ Levi said. “We must remain vigilant in preventing and controlling emerging threats … but not at the expense of ongoing, highly disruptive and dangerous diseases – seasonal flu, HIV/AIDS, antibiotic resistance and health-care-associated infections.”

Ebola, which has devastated West Africa, spread for the first time outside that region this year.

In early autumn, a Texas hospital initially failed to diagnose the disease in a new arrival from West Africa. When he was eventually admitted, he was fatally ill and highly contagious. Two nurses attending to him caught the virus, raising fears nationwide, but the nurses recovered after treatment.

Georgia has responded quickly to Ebola, public health officials say. The state is assembling a tiered system among the state’s hospitals for identifying and treating Ebola patients. And Emory University Hospital in Atlanta has successfully treated four Ebola patients.

The report on outbreaks, though, appeared as the CDC said Georgia had an extremely high level of flu.

The state scored 5 of 10 indicators in the report. It achieved goals for increasing or maintaining public health funding; having a high rate of early childhood vaccinations; and reducing the number of health-care-acquired infections involving a “central line’’ catheter.

Georgia also was cited favorably for public health lab preparation for emerging disease threats; and reporting of HIV data to a state surveillance program.

Dr. Jacqueline Grant, director of the Southwest Public Health District in Albany, said the public can take away from the report what the state did well on and what it didn’t — as well as the role public health messaging plays when keeping people informed of threats.

“I think there is always room for improvement … in general, the report shows specific improvements have been made — but there are still things we need to do (as far as improvements in infection control),” she said.

Georgia scored on public health funding, meaning the state increased or maintained the level of funding for public health services from Fiscal Year 2012-13 to Fiscal Year 2013-14. Georgia also scored on vaccinations by 90 percent of its children ages 19-35 months receiving the recommended doses for the Hepatitis B vaccine, and also scored in health care-acquired infections by reducing the number of central line-associated blood stream infections between 2011 and 2012, the report showed.

Georgia also scored in emerging threat preparation by public health lab reports conducting an exercise or utilizing a real event to evaluate the time for sentinel clinical laboratories to acknowledge receipt of an urgent message from a lab from July 1, 2013 to June 30, and also scored in requiring reporting of all CD4 and HIV viral load data to their state HIV surveillance program.

Grant noted the public health funding as a plus, and indicated that childhood vaccinations is at least one area in which Southwest Georgia area progress reflects state progress.

“The district does very well (with childhood vaccinations),” she said. “That is one thing the state does very well in.”

On the note of vaccinations, Grant said that — even with a mutated strain making the flu vaccine less effective than hoped for this year — that getting inoculated for the flu is still the best protection, and that this year’s busy flu season could potentially have an impact on the number of people getting flu shots next year.

“Next year, (I expect) more people will get their flu shots,” she said.

The messaging of flu shots, keeping restaurants up to par with food safety standards and keeping the public informed of disease outbreaks as they emerge are among the ways public health messaging — and remaining vigilant — comes into play in Southwest Georgia, the importance of which is reflected in the report.

In turn, it highlights the significance of public and private partnerships to protect a community’s health, Grant said.

“Integration of public health and private care (helps to keep information out there),” she said. “(People) need to know what is emerging. We need to get the information out there.”

The categories where Georgia didn’t score a point included flu vaccination rates; completing climate change adaptation plans; and prompt testing of suspected E. coli cases.

No state achieved a score of 10. Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia tied for the top score with 8 out of 10 indicators. Arkansas had the lowest score at 2 out of 10.

The indicators are developed with public health experts based on data from publicly available sources or information provided by public officials.

The report also found that:

_ Significant advances have been made in preparing for public health emergencies since the Sept. 11, 2001 and the anthrax attacks, but gaps remain and have been exacerbated as resources were cut over time.

_ More than 2 million preschoolers, 35 percent of seniors and a majority of adults do not receive all recommended vaccinations.

_ While health-care-associated infections have declined in recent years, about one out of every 25 people hospitalized each year still contract such an infection.

_ The number of new HIV infections grew by 22 percent among young gay men, and 48 percent among young black men.

_ About 48 million Americans suffer from a food borne illness each year.

Public health preparedness relies to a large extent on funding, experts say.

The nation increased public health funding after the 2001 terrorist attacks, only to slash that funding since the economic downturn of the past few years, USA Today reported, adding that the CDC’s budget shrank by 10 percent — nearly $1 billion — from 2012 to 2013.

In response to Ebola, though, Congress approved more than $6 billion in emergency funding.

Herald Staff Writer Jennifer Parks contributed to this report.